Australia: Day 1 (15 Dec) Sydney

We arrived in Sydney on time after what seemed like forever flying from Korea, but it was 07.15, so we had the whole day, and thankfully no jetlag. We had booked in at a small hotel called Macquarie Boutique hotel. It definitely had its own character, with a pub on the ground floor, the reception on the second floor, and the breakfast area at a small place next door. The room was small, but Carla and I liked the place.

We met my Mother who had flown in from Noosa the night before, and was also staying at the hotel. It was good to see her, as it had been 16 months since I had seen her last, and befoe that was quite a number of years.

After catching up and having a bit of breakfast, we headed for a walk to Hyde Park / the Botanical Gardens, and thought we would see where that led us. Hyde Park was great, with all the grass and greenery around, which we have really missed in Seoul.

Walking through the park was a good start to the holiday. We had heard that there were these large bats called Flying Foxes that lived in the Botanical Gardens, and were really surpised by how large they were. They really did remind of Dracula and could really see how this was made into an ominous creature.


We carried on through the Botanical Gardens until we reached Sydney harbour. It was really bustling on the harbour, with all different yachts and boats all over the place.


Sydney Opera house was right there, and it does really give you that realisation that you are now in Sydney. It is an amaizing design. We walked around the Opera House for a while, acting like real tourists and taking pictures at all different angles.

From the Opera House the view to Sydnet Harbour Bridge is really great, so of course we took all of those pictures as well.

It has been 18 years since I have been in Sydney, but one thing that has not changed is the group of Aboringines that play the didgeridoo at the Circular Quay in Sudney harbour. I could swear it is the same group as 18 years ago.


After some drinks over looking the harbour, we took a ferry to Darling Harbour to look around. We didn't stay long as the lack of sleep from the night before was starting to catch up.

We went back to Darling Harbour for dinner at a great Italian restaurant, where I learnt something new, Sangria is not Italian, but Spanish...


By the end of Dinner, Carla and I were finished, so we walked ack to the hotel through China Town and crashed for the evening.

Build a bear

Carla and I decided to go to "Build a bear", a shop where you can go and make your own teddies. You can choose a bear you like, you get to stuff it, put a heart in it, ... Then you can start to dress it up and finally you get to name the bear and you get a birth certificate.

It was quite a lot of fun, and I think Carla was really impressed with herself that she got me to go in.

Funny signs

We are terrible at keeping the camera with us, we always see some really strange or funny signs and then can't take a photo, but here are a couple...
Self wine, rebirth ...?

A perfectly normal shop name
















Of course it is a happy sale

Off to Australia

We are about to get on our way to the airport. I finally managed to get my passport this morning, which was really cutting it close. The reason my passport was a problem is that I have 2 passports, one South African and one Australian. My Australian passport had expired, so I was going to travel on my South African, however I could not get a visa on my South Africa passport because I am an Australian citizen, so I had to renew my passport.

We need to be at the airport around 13:00 today, so I was at the embassy early this morning, hoping my passport was ready, and luckily it was.

Crime

A little over a week ago there was an incident in Seoul, someone stole a firearm from a policeman, and shot the policeman who died later in hospital. It is amaizing the reaction that has taken place, since the incident there have been constant road blocks, looking at every vehicle passing over the bridges in Seoul. This has gone on for more than a week.
The traffic has been terrible, but I guess it is worth the price.

I can now see why the crime rate is so low, especially any serious crime, as when it happens the police and military go all out to find the culprit. Quite different from back home, where it would be seen as just another day and another murder.

Maybe our senior police and politicians should come over here and have a look. I was strangely happy and surprised to see that the police had killed 11 people in South Africa in stopping a Cash-in-transit heist. Well maybe they are starting to take things more seriously, we will see...

Snowing

It started to snow yesterday. Nothing really heavy but it is still nice to see the garden all white. Storm is really funny though, whenever it snows she comes in early in the morning and barks to wake me up, probably to say that there is some funny white stuff on the ground again.

Korean titles

Hierachy is really important in Korea, and to help identify where in the pecking order people are, there are "Korean titles". These titles are extremely important in business and actual is part of the reason why people exchange business cards so frequently, and will result sometimes in whether people actualy take you seriously or not.

As you move from one Korean title to the next, it is considered a promotion, even if your job / responsibilities have not changed, but is a sign of recognition for the work you do and time you have spent in a job. So normally after you have spent a number of years in a position and with a certain Korean title, you expect to receive a title change.

Some of the titles are: sawon (entry level), daeri (junior level), gwajang (gettin important), chajang (middle management), Bujang (head of a department), Eesa (Director), Sangmu (managing director), .... sajang (president). There are actually more mingled in, for vice president, senior vice president, etc

The nice thing about Korean titles is that they give you a real basis to show your appreciation / recognition for ongoing good performance, even if there is not the opportunity to give another promotion. The problem with the Korean title system is that you can never go backwards in a title, and if someone new enters the organisation, everyone compares their current Korean title to the new person to see where they fit in. So if you are an Sangmu in a small company, and you move to another company you would not accept to now be an Eesa. What that means is that if everyone of the same level in the new company is an Eesa, they all need a promotion to Sangmu to keep everything in balance.

It gets rather complicated at times.